Never a typical day for Bad Axe police

Published 8:00 pm, Thursday, August 28, 2008

BAD AXE— It’s 8 a.m. on a recent Thursday at the Bad Axe Police Department and Chief John Bodis is ready to open his office for a morning briefing with two of his officers.

Before Lt. David Rothe and Det. Kevin Knoblock come on scene, the Bad Axe Police chief gives us a heads up on a recent happening in his department.

Though he can’t go into details, he does say a computer was confiscated in the area and his department earlier in the week worked with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) for some tips on basic computer forensic analysis.

“It’s an open investigation, so I can’t say much,” he says. “ … But this is separate from the other one.”

“The other one” Bodis is referring to is a computer that was confiscated in late May, when FBI agents and officers from the Bad Axe Police Department (BAPD) executed a search warrant at a home located at 222 N. Heisterman St. in Bad Axe. No arrests have been made in connection to that matter.

It was at that earlier incident where the BAPD made the contacts with the FBI that led to the assistance given earlier last week from the FBI’s Bay City office.

“That was neat,” Knoblock says after he and Rothe enter the room Thursday for the morning’s meeting. “… We were trained by someone who’s handled some very high-profiled cases … someone who’s very reputable.”

Rothe adds it helps when the department can make contacts with agencies like the FBI because not only can they share their institutional knowledge, but they also have specialized resources that BAPD doesn’t have.

Sometimes those resources, along with a network of contacts in law enforcement, are just what the department needs because many times, situations arise in the city that don’t involve individuals with a Bad Axe address, Bodis said.

“The Bad Axe Police Department is the hub of the county,” he said. “A lot of people we service (and law enforcement the BAPD assists) are not from the Bad Axe area — they’re from out of town.”

“We work hand in hand with the county, state police, other townships, villages … and even other counties … and cities (outside Huron County),” Knoblock added.

Illustrating the notion of BAPD’s cooperation/interaction with other law enforcement entities, Huron County Undersheriff Tyler Ramsey enters the room mid-way through this recent Thursday morning’s briefing.

Bodis says he has daily contact with the undersheriff to share information and resources.

He says his department’s investigations can take officers pretty much anywhere.

“Because even though the crime’s committed here, (the people involved) may not be from here,” Bodis adds.

During this Thursday morning briefing, Bodis, Rothe and Knoblock take time to hash out where cases stand, what things need to be done, and how the workload should be distributed.

One of the assignments discussed includes watching a video to identify a suspect of a recent breaking and entering.

Another assignment entails fingerprinting evidence collected from sites of vandalism that occurred at the Huron County Road Commission and Huron County Fairgrounds during Fair Week.

“It’s been a busy summer with MDOPs (incidents of malicious destruction of property) and B and Es (breaking and enterings),” Knoblock explains. “Bad Axe is a good place to live, but we have been busy with a variety of different complaints.”

In addition to those complaints, other cases BAPD recently has been working on include an arson and a series of graffiti.

“We had several houses … (and) vehicles spray painted, and we had several roadways, signs and porches (painted too),” Knoblock said. “ … We (dubbed) that particular group the ‘Graffiti bandits.’”

Like the other cases, these incidents still are under investigation, and therefore the officers can’t go into much detail.

“We don’t want to compromise (the investigations),” Rothe said.

Knoblock said he doesn’t want the public to read these things and feel they are no longer safe.

“We’ve just had an unusually busy summer,” he said.

“Bad Axe is a safe place to live, and it’s a safe place to live because we make it that way,” Rothe agreed, noting the city of Bad Axe always has an officer on duty — 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

In regard to the recent vandalism complaints, Knoblock said they are isolated incidents, and by no means is this an on-going crime spree.

“You get one or two or three (individuals/juveniles) that lose focus for a couple of hours and then they really have to pay for it later,” he said.

Following the Thursday morning briefing, Knoblock heads downstairs to BAPD’s Detective Bureau, where he puts evidence previously collected from recent MDOPs into the department’s glue tank.

The glue tank is a large glass fish tank lined with aluminum paper. A light bulb rests at the bottom of the tank heats super glue that, when warmed, becomes fumes. When cooled, the fumes affix to the evidence, resulting in a preserved hand or finger print.

The preserved print then is lifted and placed on tabs that are sent to the Michigan State Police Crime Lab in Bridgeport.

After he’s gotten his fingerprint work completed, Knoblock leaves the department to go to the city attorney’s office.

From there, he heads over to the dispatch center to pick up some paper work from the Law Enforcement Information Network (LEIN).

After returning to the office to do some work on digital photographs from a previous incident of property damage, Knoblock interviews a victim from a prior damage complaint.

He then briefly meets with a victim of a previous damage incident, then conducts another interview in regard to a separate incident of property damage.

Without exception, it’s the interviews — specifically the ones where suspects are being questioned — that are the most challenging part of his job, Knoblock says.

“I don’t like to (use the term) ‘interrogation’ — it’s interviewing and getting somebody to admit responsibility for something they’ve done,” he said.

Knoblock, who has been with the department for more than 16 years, was promoted to detective in 2002. During the school year, he works on the road while also serving as a BAPD detective.

It’s while school’s in session that he spends about 75 percent of his time on the road, and the remaining 25 percent “in plain clothes” as a detective.

The part of his job Knoblock said he likes the most is interacting with the community.

“I like getting out there and rubbing elbows (with the public),” he said, noting it helps to make contacts in the community so he can get a feel as to who’s doing what, and what’s happening where.

The majority of Knoblock’s time is broken up between taking statements, doing follow-up interviews, writing reports, testifying in court and processing scenes.

After Thursday’s field interviews, Knoblock returns to the office to answer a variety of phone calls, and then he conducts an interview with another victim of a property damage complaint.

He then tags some evidence from another case, and eventually hits the desk to tackle some paper work.

Knoblock’s typical day starts at 8 a.m. and ends at about 4 p.m., providing there’s no phone call or complaint that extends the work day.

“Periodically, I will get called in if something major happens … and I’ve been called at 1, 3 and 5 a.m.,” he said. “It’s not something that happens often, but if there’s something major that needs to be investigated, they’ll call me and I’ll come in.”